Claude Mills, Staff ReporterThe world-renowned "seven miles of white sand" beaches in Negril are in grave danger, as coastal erosion, worsened by high seas and odd El Niño-influenced weather patterns, has ravaged the famous strip.
Fast disappearing beach fronts have not only threatened the natural environment of Negril and other areas in Jamaica, but the business climate as well. Negril Treehouse, for example, is one of the businesses adversely affected by the erosion.
"We have lost almost 35 to 40 feet of beach over the last two years, and four rows of coconut trees," Rohan Myrie, water sports manager of the Negril Treehouse in the area, said last week. "...The erosion is just incredible, one day we could wake up and find that the beach is gone.
"The whole geography of the coastline has changed, the high seas, constant erosion...and there is no guarantee we'll get back the sand. We lose more every day."
Information from the Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society (NCRPS) indicated that properties on the strip, such as Negril Treehouse, have lost 315 feet of sand since February 1998, and Footeprints Hotel has lost some 291 feet over that same period. Most areas, especially those in the nearby Long Bay Beach park area, have lost cumulative sand mass in excess of 200 feet.
However, it is not only Negril that is being affected by the global phenomenon of increasingly violent storms and coastal erosion.
"There are areas we've been observing such as Bull Bay, St. Thomas, St. Margaret's Bay in Portland, Rozelle in St. Thomas, Jackson Bay in Clarendon, where there is evidence of significant net erosion," said Anthony McKenzie, senior director of Coastal Zone Management of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA). "Areas of the north coast are OK because whenever the coast erodes, it generally recovers."
Experts also theorise that Port Royal, the subject of at least one major tourism project, will be threatened by rising sea levels as ice gaps and glaciers melt worldwide.
However, unlike other areas, beach erosion has become a priority issue in the Negril resort which depends heavily on the commodity to sustain its tourism business. The Negril Chamber of Commerce is sending out an SOS.
"The situation needs to be addressed," said Cliff Reynolds, president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce. "The Government doesn't seem to take up these things until they collapse. It is a serious thing. Let's deal with it before it collapses, and becomes an international scene, and costs a whole lot more to fix. We need some help, all NRCA has to do is just spend a portion of the money it gets from beach licence fees to do a study, or do something about the problem."
Guidance
"We called a meeting and asked the NRCA for guidance, we told them that if they can provide the technical assistance, then we will provide the funds to save the beach. It is pointless to have NRCA if they're not going to try to save the beach, and they don't enforce law. NRCA is a disgrace," he added.
Desperate, some hoteliers have constructed offshore breakwater structures and groynes in contravention of the law, in a futile effort to keep the sea at bay.
Mr. McKenzie said, "the NRCA has had difficulties with some of the groynes that the proprietors have built but we have agreed with the use of sandbags. However we need to be advised when they will be used."
He added, "the NRCA can't do much to save the beaches of Negril, our influence is limited when cases are natural but we will continue to take steps to address the human effects...The beach will begin to recover in March and April, next year."
Some proprietors of the Long Bay beach area are being accused of being among the main culprits responsible for the beach's inability to replenish itself.
"There is no natural vegetation in the Long Bay area, and in that area the buildings are too close to the beach, original structures like Paradise View, Treehouse and Footeprints are constructed much too close to the high water mark...and the sand needs to be given a chance to replenish itself. The coral in Negril is dead, and with that gone, what's to stop the sea from infiltrating the land?" said Courtney Black, a ranger of the NCRPS.
A separate study conducted last year at five shallow water reef sites by Dr. Jim Porter, professor of ecology and marine sciences at the University of Georgia in the United States showed reefs with less than five per cent coral cover in Negril. Coral reefs are often the first line of defence for inland areas against storm surges. But experts claim that Negril has "patches of coral reef" instead of a large barrier reef.
